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Saturday, December 12, 2009

Christmakuh

On Friday, my day off, I volunteered to do the Hanukah talk at the boys' school and lead the kids in making cork reindeers (with the hundreds of leftover corks from Rock-n-Romp.)

Jiro's class was absolutely riveted by my talk. Not.

I did elicit some oohs and ahhs when I suggested we turn out the lights to enjoy the hanukah candles.

Getting them excited about the craft was pretty easy. I was the one who started to lack enthusiasm. Twenty-three primary kids all at once was a bit overwhelming. However, with the help of the teachers, we got a tight system together.

Soon everyone was making cute little reindeer. The craft store ran out of red noses, so we had a variety of colors to choose from. The result was a veritable reindeer circus. The big kids helped the little kids. Jiro helped everyone--and managed to make six of his own. It was a hit!

I would have liked to call it a day and go get in my bed, but I had also volunteered to lead Satchel's class in Christmakuh activities. They were much more into the Hanukah talk since their teacher had found a nice board book for me to read. And they also did an impromptu performance of the Hanukah song they'd been practicing for the upcoming school play. It was lovely!

Miss Sally had planned for us to play dreidel too, so half the class did that while the other half made ornaments. It was nice not having a huge horde of kids to deal with all at once, but the elementary kids are way different from the primary kids. They like to invent instructions rather than follow them! Reindeers were boring--they wanted to make cannons and giraffes, airplanes and spaceships. Eventually we agreed to make reindeer with four legs, three eyes, and whatever else they could think of.

Once I let go of trying to control the craft, we had a great time. The elementary kids are very creative!

I still had a million corks leftover--they seem to be multiplying. When we got home, Satchel and Jiro proceeded to make cork bears, aliens, monkeys, and penguins.